is reckoned by Arrian to be 350 ſtadia, or 43.75 Greek miles, or about 40 Engliſh miles diſtant from Dioſcurias. Strabo agrees nearly herewith, as he makes it 360 ſtadia, a trifling difference from the calculation of Arrian. There is a place of nearly the ſame name[1] ſtill on this coaſt, but it appears much farther to the north than the ſituation deſcribed by Arrian. It probably derived its name from the pine-trees, which ſtill grow in great plenty throughout all that country. It is called by Strabo "the great Pityus," and by Pliny, "oppidum opulentiſſimum," probably from its ſharing with Dioſcurias in the trade of the Eaſt.
Arrian ſpeaks of Dioſcurias as the boundary of the Roman Empire, Whereas Theodoret, who lived in the fifth century, and at leaſt 300 years later than Arrian, and when the Empire was in a declining ſtate, mentions Pityus as the frontier[2] place. It was regarded in ſtill later times as a fortreſs only, and both this place and Sebaſtopolis are conſidered in that light by Procopius, and in the Preface to the 28th Conſtitution of the Novels of Juſtinian.
From Pityus[3] to Nitica 150 ſtadia. Beyond Pityus, Theodoret repreſents the people, as ferociouſly ſavage[4], and this is probable from Arrian's account of them, as Nitica was the reſort or the reſidence of the Scythian Phthirophagi, or Lice-eaters. Arrian ſeems to caſt an oblique cenſure on Herodotus, for his account of theſe people; but they are mentioned both by Strabo and by Pliny,
- ↑ Bityunta—Map of the country between the Black ſea and the Caſpian. Byzjunta—Arrowfmiths chart.
- ↑ Theodor. Hiſt. Eccleſiaſt. lib. v. c. 34.
- ↑ Procopius ſays, it is two days journey from Sebaſtiopolis to Pityus. If this be meant of a day's journey for a foot traveller, which was uſually reckoned at 20 miles a day, it agrees nearly with Strabo and Arrian.
- ↑ ὠμωτάτοις βαρβάροις.
without
